Edmond O’Brien: Everyman of Film Noir

[Edmond O’Brien was one of the most versatile actors of his generation who made an abiding impact in a series of iconic noir films. From a man reporting his own murder in D. O. A. (1949) to the conflicted title character in The Bigamist (1953), O’Brien delineated par excellence the confusion of an Everyman in the complex post-war world. He created a gallery of memorable portrayals in all mediums across the genres, from Shakespeare to westerns and comedies; he also turned his hand to directing. His unique talent was rewarded with an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor as the harassed press agent Oscar Muldoon in Joseph Mankiewicz’s bitter Cinderella fable The Barefoot Contessa (1954). This first in-depth study of O’Brien charts his life and career from the Broadway stage to Hollywood in its heyday and the rise of television. It shows him as a devoted family man dedicated to his art whose career was ended prematurely by mounting health problems but whose work endures. He was always different: as he once observed “It’s from me the audience expects the unusual. I like it that way.”]